Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.
Those cheering the U.S. Congress’s latest move against TikTok should be careful what they wish for. It’s a case of pick your poison.
No matter what the outcome of the legislation passed by the Senate this week – the sale of the Chinese-owned platform to American buyers or an outright ban of its use – the more than one billion TikTok users the legislation is meant to protect will be swapping one goblet of hemlock for another.
To be sure, the legislation may well achieve its core objective of mitigating and perhaps eliminating the perceived threat that TikTok is used by China’s communist government as a spying mechanism, capturing vital personal information from users and using it for allegedly nefarious purposes. But it threatens to exacerbate the problem of concentrating private information and influence among a very small group of domestic-technology players that over time have proved they can’t be trusted, either.
Yes, we’re talking about the United States’ own Big Tech firms, annoyingly referred to as the Magnificent Seven as if they were truly so. If you have been paying attention, it’s hard to fathom that they are, by virtue of their headquarters’ addresses, that much more trustworthy when it comes to handling user information than foreign interests such as ByteDance, the Beijing-based owner of TikTok.
Think about it this way. If the decision is to sell to U.S.-based buyers, the whispers are it will likely go to a company such as Microsoft. It has the financial and technical wherewithal to absorb the platform.
Like most of the Magnificent Seven, Microsoft is hardly a boy scout. Its influence has become so powerful and so ingrained in our lives, it is very hard to control or fight because no one knows where to start.
It’s not about whether or not you believe in conspiracy theories when it comes to Big Tech influence. If you think those pop-up ads that appear seemingly out of nowhere on your laptop or mobile phone after you have launched a search or asked Siri for advice are not going to one day evolve into more nefarious implementations, well, I wish I had your level of blissfully naïve trust.
If TikTok is banned in the U.S., the biggest beneficiary will be Meta. Where else are TikTok‘s estimated one billion monthly active users going to get their fixes of mindless content like waterskiing squirrels, dogs skipping rope and people sharing in excruciating detail their morning bathroom routines?
Meta is perhaps the most suspect when it comes to the ethical handling of personal information. Famously, in 2018 it emerged that Facebook had let an outside application access user data and pass them to others. Recipients of the information included Cambridge Analytica, a British consultancy that used targeted messaging in American political campaigns.
Sadly, if you’ve watched any of the televised U.S. Congressional hearings examining the questionable practices of Big Tech – particularly Meta – government leaders are so woefully out of step and ill-equipped to ask even the most basic questions about technology that a concerted effort to police the Magnificent Seven is unlikely.
For its part in the dust-up, ByteDance says it does not store any user information in China and does not voluntarily share such data with the Chinese government. Under Chinese national-security law, however, businesses, if asked, are compelled to hand over to the government whatever information is requested.
So, while what ByteDance says may be true on paper, the reality is far less comforting to those who believe the mindless content on TikTok sets a trap that puts U.S. national security at risk, and the Chinese government is influencing the types of messages North American users see on the platform.
The legislation, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, is a nice bit of political haymaking in a highly competitive election year. From there, it will take some time to sort. ByteDance will have a year to find a buyer – an initial nine months, with Mr. Biden having the option to extend the deadline by three months if there is credible evidence a deal is in the works.
Not surprisingly, ByteDance says it may seek legal recourse against the law, which could push out a resolution even further.
While the move against TikTok may be politically expedient for U.S. lawmakers and Mr. Biden, users should beware of the consequences of the outcome, intended or otherwise.
Hucksters in the realm of P.T. Barnum had a name for those who believe domestic Big Tech will treat their personal data with more care, protection and privacy than foreign-owned interests. They might even have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell them.